MANILA: Joshua Umandal never tries to impress but his performance for unbeaten Cignal speaks for itself, earning him the Spikers’ Turf Press Corps Player of the Week citation for the period April 17 to 21.
He delivered a conference-best 36 points on 32 attacks, three blocks, and one ace, to go with 10 excellent receptions and six digs, as the HD Spikers scored a 21-25, 25-18, 20-25, 25-19, 15-7 victory over the D’Navigators Iloilo on April 17.
Cignal extended its win run to six and secured a Final Four ticket.
”Di ko expected na aabot ako sa ganito kataas. Usually naman, ‘di kami nanalo nang dahil lang sa akin (kundi) dahil sa buong team. So parang ‘di ko siya inisip na kailangan marami akong i-puntos. Gusto ko lang talaga makatulong (I didn’t expect to reach that high. Usually, we win not just because of me (but) because of the whole team. So it’s like I didn’t think that I needed to score a lot. I just really want to help),’ the national team mainstay said.
‘Nagpapasalamat pa rin ako na na-achieve ko ‘
yung ganyang achievement kahit papaano (I am still grateful that I was able to achieve such an achievement somehow),’ the 2023 Open Conference Most Valuable Player added.
Umandal beat Criss Cross’ Jude Garcia, Savouge’s John Diwa and VNS-Nasty’s Kenneth Culabat for the weekly honor given by print and online scribes covering the league organized by Sports Vision and streamed live at spikersturf.ph.
Despite fatigue from back-to-back five-set victories, he managed to perform well.
‘Siguro, in-overcome namin ‘yung pagod na ‘yun at lahat ng pressure na meron kami sa team. As in talagang kahit mentally prepared ka, kung ‘yung physical condition mo talagang pagod, sobrang hirap (Maybe, we overcame fatigue and all the pressure we had. Even if you are mentally prepared, but your physically condition is not good, it is very difficult),” shared Umandal, who scored 20 points in Cignal’s 20-25, 25-15, 23-25, 25-23, 15-12 win over Criss Cross on April 14.
‘Kaya para sa’kin, mas nanatili sa akin ‘yung pagiging beterano
ko na kailangan ma-overcome ko ‘tong pagod na ‘to para hindi sayang ‘yung punta ko dito at hindi sayang ‘yung pinaghirapan namin ng ilang araw. Ayaw ko ring magpatalo nang basta-basta lang (So for me, my being a veteran showed and that I needed to overcome fatigue so that coming to the games and what we worked for won’t go to waste. I don’t want to lose easily),” Umandal said.
Cignal will go for win No. 7 against the VNS-Nasty (2-4) on April 24 at Paco Arena in Manila.
Source: Philippines News Agency